Kaywoodie “The Rock” 1942 Advertisement

[Briar Lee]

Hitler invaded Poland on September 1 1939 and thereafter Britain and France and Germany were at war.

Italy was neural until June 1940 when Mussolini joined the war on the side of the Axis powers.

After Pearl Harbor, in 1942 Kaywoodie ran this famous advertisement assuring the public they had bought up enough briar before the war.



Before the war Kaywoodie advertised they made 11 million pipes a year (out of a USA total of 30 million according to a wartime agency study).

I’ve seen some gnarled looking Kaywoodie “Hand Made” pipes that were likely late war production, and the size of the aluminum ball noticeably shrank during the war.

But Kaywoodie branded pipes seem to have always been made of imported briar.

I wonder when they got new supplies after the 1943 fall of Southern Italy to the Allies?

 

[judcole]

I note with interest that they were getting their briar from Greece and Albania. First time that I have seen mention of the latter country as a source for briar,

 

[pylorns]

Yeah, Id be curious of the history in the later war years when it came to production.

 

[Briar Lee]

A note about Greek briar.

I’ll have to find the information but during the Depression Kaywoodie sold so many pipes they effectively gained a monopoly on ancient briar dug in Greece, (probably through corruption given the political turmoil there) and advertised photos of burl roots of gigantic size.

Albania also had a corrupt government in the thirties, evidently where Kaywoodie could also monopolize briar harvesting.

Another fascinating aspect is Greece and Albania were neutral from September 1939 until Italy joining the war in June 1940 effectively closed the Mediterranean. They did have a short window to export briar after the war began.

 

[trouttimes]

Extremely interesting information. I had no idea of the history.

 

[Merton]

Hitler invaded Poland on September 1 1939 and thereafter Britain and France and Germany were at war.

Italy was neural until June 1940 when Mussolini joined the war on the side of the Axis powers.

After Pearl Harbor, in 1942 Kaywoodie ran this famous advertisement assuring the public they had bought up enough briar before the war.

View attachment 252971

Before the war Kaywoodie advertised they made 11 million pipes a year (out of a USA total of 30 million according to a wartime agency study).

I’ve seen some gnarled looking Kaywoodie “Hand Made” pipes that were likely late war production, and the size of the aluminum ball noticeably shrank during the war.

But Kaywoodie branded pipes seem to have always been made of imported briar.

I wonder when they got new supplies after the 1943 fall of Southern Italy to the Allies?

Great post, thank you

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

KW did suffer from briar shortages during that later part of the Second World War just like everyone. They did have enough briar stores to continue producing pipes but at only a fraction of the output they did before the war. They even experimented with American briar aka manzanita, they called it Mission Briar. They produced a lot of Manzanita/mission briar from
43-48.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

KW did suffer from briar shortages during that later part of the Second World War just like everyone. They did have enough briar stores to continue producing pipes but at only a fraction of the output they did before the war. They even experimented with American briar aka manzanita, they called it Mission Briar. They produced a lot of Manzanita/mission briar from
43-48.
View attachment 253328

 

[trouttimes]

How does a Mission Briar smoke? Taste? Life span?

 

[TheIronMonkey]

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you—I only have the one shown in the above post, unsmoked, in its original packaging (and will remain so as long as I am its caretaker); that it survived so long in this state is something of a miracle and I want to preserve that (I have plenty of other pipes to smoke). If I’m really curious, maybe I’ll track down a used one to smoke and report back. @RustiePyles CPG might have one from his collection that he smokes and can share its smoking properties.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

How does a Mission Briar smoke? Taste? Life span?

Botanically it’s the same thing as all the other briars, Erica arborea. But since it doesn’t grow under the same conditions it doesn’t develop the same properties. It lacks the same grain structure and doesn’t have the same level of heat resistance. It’s more prone to burn out.

 

[LeafErikson]

View attachment 253339

Super cool!

 

[LeafErikson]

Manzanita is so incredibly profuse on the west coast so I wonder what the smoking properties would be like. Madrone burls also seem decent to make a pipe out of but I’m not sure.

 

[didimauw]

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you—I only have the one shown in the above post, unsmoked, in its original packaging (and will remain so as long as I am its caretaker); that it survived so long in this state is something of a miracle and I want to preserve that (I have plenty of other pipes to smoke). If I’m really curious, maybe I’ll track down a used one to smoke and report back. @RustiePyles CPG might have one from his collection that he smokes and can share its smoking properties.

This is in my opinion one of the very few reasons a pipe shouldn't be smoked. Aside from that damn Kaywoodie Elegante I bought months ago and haven't gotten around to yet! lol

 

[Briar Lee]

Botanically it’s the same thing as all the other briars, Erica arborea. But since it doesn’t grow under the same conditions it doesn’t develop the same properties. It lacks the same grain structure and doesn’t have the same level of heat resistance. It’s more prone to burn out.

Missouri has about 22 native oaks and 30 more hybrid oaks in the state.

Almost fifty years ago at Lebanon Missouri there was an inspector at the gate of the Independent Stave Company.

He bought only one oak, called the white oak.

If the hauler tried to pass off another oak as the whiskey barrel white oak, he would reject the entire load and blackball the VIN number of the logging truck from ever selling stave bolts again.

Most of the stave bolt sellers were teetotalers, and all were practicing Christians about selling Independent Stave Company white oak logs,,.only.